Over ten species of sea cucumbers can be found on the seafloor of the Santa Barbara Channel. Sea cucumbers eat astonishing amounts of debris that falls to the seafloor and, by doing so, have a major impact on the ecology of the seafloor.
Warty sea cucumber by island (CINP data)
A figure showing the average density of warty sea cucumbers across the Northern Channel Islands from 2005 to 2016. Figure credit: Channel Islands National Park.
Click for Details
Average density of warty sea cucumber (Parastichopus parvimensis) at Channel Islands National Park kelp forest monitoring sites at the five islands in Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Densities are lower, but stable at San Miguel (blue) and Santa Rosa (red) islands, while densities have declined recently at the other islands. For this graph, sea cucumber density was averaged across all monitoring sites at each island, including sites located inside and outside of marine reserves and conservation areas, to examine course-scale trends by island. At a finer scale, sea cucumber density is responding differently inside and outside of some marine protected areas (MPAs) in CINMS. For more information, consult Figure App.F.13.12 in the CINMS 2016 Condition Report.Sea cucumber island vs. mainland (SBC-LTER data)
A figure showing a comparison of the average density of sea cucumbers from two of the Northern Channel Islands to mainland sites from 2000 to 2015. Data source: SBC LTER; Figure credit: R. Freedman/NOAA.